On Aug 27, 2004, at 8:01 AM, Kevin Peuhkurinen wrote:
It makes no sense to say "here we have some verifiably homegrown IP
with no encumberances and here we have some encumbered IP. Let's use
the encumbered IP rather than the unencumbered IP because otherwise we
might get sued by parties unknown".
Is there a connection between "verifiably homegrown" and patent claims?
You are correct that the parties are unknown. If this were an arcane
subject area, it is most likely that they would remain unknown and
probably non-existent. However e-mail and electronic messaging and
anti-spam are hot areas of intellectual property. I did take a stroll
through the USPTO database and there are numerous, numerous patents in
this area. And these do not include the pending patents that cannot be
seen.
Also, if company XYZ came forward tomorrow and claimed covering IPR,
should we ignore them?
-andy